I Love the Way You Laugh
by Forever-Tangled
Summary: "How can you love a laugh? What does it feel like to love someone's laugh?" Rapunzel's exposed to a new expression and can't quite understand it at first. Rated K because it's just fluff. One-shot. Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the laptop I'm writing this on.


**A/N: So I was just thinking about laughs in general the other day and this idea came up. It might be kind of dumb and certainly is not meant to make Rapunzel seem dumb, but I wanted to play around with it! **

"Oh, and his _laugh_! I simply fell in love when I heard it!" the blond haired maid chattered eagerly, up to her elbows in laundry.  
Rapunzel smiled and nodded politely, happy that Mildred's brand-new arranged marriage had worked out so well. She was obviously so very excited about it; but how could someone fall in love with a _laugh_? What did that feel like? She nibbled her lip and glanced towards Pascal, who was seated on her shoulder. He shrugged. As soon as Rapunzel scurried outside to tend to the flower garden - a task her mother had handed over to her daughter -, Pascal hopped off of her shoulder to catch some insects.  
"How can you love someone's laugh?" she wondered aloud. She loved laughing and liked it when she made someone else laugh - unless they were laughing _at _her in a berating manner - but...this was a new concept to her. And as always, she'd take it on with her typical wide-eyed wonder and curiosity.

As she plucked dead flower heads and her slim fingers rooted out weeds, she wracked her brain. It just didn't make sense to her; a girl typically so open to anything romantic. Were those laughs romantic? Did they have the ability to _be _romantic? Suddenly, a second curiosity crept upon her. Did she love Eugene's laugh? Could you love someone if you didn't love their laugh? What if they had a dreadful, donkey-like rasping laugh, and you didn't like it and your marriage was ruined?! She glanced around guiltily, thinking that just maybe her imagination had run away with her.

She couldn't focus on her lessons that afternoon. Rapunzel's mother finally set the trade and laws rulebook down and fixed her daughter with a pensive stare.  
"Darling, is something on your mind? Would you like to share?" she asked.  
Rapunzel reached to tug on a lock of her golden tresses, coming back with thin air instead. Brushing her short brunette locks away from her eyes instead, she smiled sheepishly at her mother, the Queen. "Well...sort of. This morning, Mildred said something and I'm really curious about it."  
"And what is that?" her mother asked, a mildly embarrassed expression crossing her face. Had the maid given details about her wedding and new husband that Rapunzel didn't understand, just being out of the tower for two months?  
"She was saying about how she fell in love with her husband's laugh. What...what does that _mean_, really? How can you fall in love with someone's laugh?" she cocked her head curiously, and the Queen quietly loosed a sigh of relief.

"It's when...you feel warm and _happy _when you hear someone's laugh. You can love anyone's laugh. I love your laugh," she pointed out with a gentle, slightly overindulgent smile.  
Rapunzel's cheeks tinted pink. "How do you know if you do love someone's laugh, though? What will it feel like?"  
The Queen chuckled. "Darling, you'll know. That's something you'll find out for yourself. You'll know. It will feel and sound beautiful to you. Now, let's get back to the lesson. I think we dropped off at page thirty-seven..."  
Rapunzel nodded quietly, drowning her curiosity, which had been sated for the most part.

Later that afternoon, Rapunzel was curled up in the sitting-room with a book, nearly forgetting about her curiosity from early. The heavy wooden door swung open, and Rapunzel gasped, setting the book down and hitching up her light yellow skirts so she could run barefoot. Her feet barely even touched the cool, brown tiles, and she launched herself eagerly into Eugene Fitzherbert's arms.  
"I missed you today!" she giggled, smiling when Eugene pulled her close. He'd been gone a week, training on the other side of the kingdom.  
"Yeah...I missed you too, Blondie. But _wow_, am I sore. The Captain of the Guards, I think, has taken a little bit of his frustration towards me - or Flynn Rider - out on me during my swordsmanship training," he groaned, pulling away and rotating one of his shoulders.  
Rapunzel grinned. "Sorry!"  
"Maybe that bothersome hair would come in handy after all," he teased, kissing the tip of her freckled nose before grabbing her hand and tugging her after him, headed for the kitchen. He was starved, and he'd be darned if he'd let a grouchy cook keep him from a slice of warm bread! "How was your week?"  
She nibbled her lip. "Normal, I suppose!"  
"Filled with the typical wonders of the world?" he asked. She had an undying curiosity and her eyes always full of wonder.  
Rapunzel's green eyes danced when she realized he knew her very well. "You guessed it!"  
He chuckled. "What did you learn? Outside of traditional training, obviously."

She shrugged. "Just..._stuff_." Instead of talking about loving laughs, which she felt a little awkward bringing up to Eugene, she went off into an explanation of the various plants that did well in certain conditions or different places in the garden - which was another thing she'd been tracking and learning herself. She leaned up against a mostly vacant counter-top as she spoke, watching Eugene try to slip past the cook to get a piece of bread. When he succeeded unnoticed when the cook reached to stir a cauldron of either soup or some evil potion, he jerked his head and she followed him quickly out the door. He leaned up against the wall as the door clicked shut, keeping them safely away from the kitchen, and gave Rapunzel a mock-scared, entirely silly expression. When Rapunzel rolled her eyes and laughed, he did too.  
This laugh was a little different than his usual chuckles. He tilted his head back to reveal his tanned throat, and the laugh was low and like a melody. It always tickled Rapunzel, and she started laughing more. A pleasant warm feeling spread through her. She always liked to hear that laugh. Maybe she even loved it.


End file.
